Is "the decimation of rural Ireland" overhyped

veryangryman

Do people really need cash in this day and age with all the tech out there? Please don't start with "what about the old people" - they're not morons and anyone who thinks otherwise has an outdated view on life.

The way I see it, the less opportunity people have to "insist on cash" the better. Some of us get our wages taxed at source so can't dodge it. The cynic in me thinks that alot of the moaners are those who are doing said dodgy deals.

As for the post offices closing and "killing the village". If the highlight of your village is a post office, that's a pretty sh1tty place to live.

Finally...cash is disgusting. Every gowl who hasn't washed their hands from the jacks has rubbed off that fifty in your pocket.

My only gripe this week is that more places haven't gone cashless.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058255564/is-the-decimation-of-rural-ireland-overhyped

Tax evasion is my god given right

The Continental Op

You are missing the point but started to make it yourself its death by a thousand cuts.

Post offices closing, cashless banks, and you want us all to behave like automatons behaving exactly the way you want.

Me I'll continue to wipe my arse with 50's got from doing cash jobs.

CPTM

There are a lot of service industries which depend highly on tax evasion to stay standing. That might not be a nice thing to hear for those people who love a black and white world but it's true. House cleaners, baby sitters and child minders, rural taxi drivers, window cleaners, kids cutting lawns.. The government knows these people exist and are demonstrably fine with it because the good far outweighs the bad. The government don't want to get into the weeds of the nitty gritty jobs here and there. Taxation is already complicated enough. So they allow this to go under the radar.

Having a digital recording of these services leaves the service provider open to prosecution should a tunnel vision boardsie get into power or some mad man that wants things binary without exception. Hence the appetite for cash.

By the way I do agree it's disgusting I have to say. Especially those people in centra who prepare food and also take in money without using gloves.

BattleCorp

Tis a fool who thinks cash isn't an important aspect of a functioning economy.

But yeah, closing the post office, banks etc. in rural areas does impact on the social life of many elderly people. My mother is 79 and while it takes about 2 mins to get her pension, she usually spends an hour yapping to other auld wans in the shop. And more power to them.

On a longer term note, once cash has been gotten rid of, what's to stop banks etc. from putting a €1 charge on every transaction. Or €2. They'll have a monopoly at that stage and you'll have fcukall choice but to put up with it. It's a big mistake to get rid of cash.

fryup

you're a very angry man OP 😑

There's still plenty of innocent reasons to use cash. Would be a bit awkward for example if a newly married couple provided their bank details so guests could transfer them some money...

Giving your child a weekly wage. Pay the babysitter. Giving a tip. Lots of stuff.

Not to mention I enjoy putting a few quid on the horses every now and then and would prefer to not have it on record.

My father in law is 78 and has only ever used cash. Still gets his pension in cash. Should we force him at 78 to change his ways?

Thelonious Monk

For as long as I can remember they've been banging on about rural Ireland dying. Is it not gone yet or have they moved somewhere not as awful?

pgj2015

I couldn't log in to my bank account yesterday, yeah its a great idea to go cashless, not. People are too lazy to use ATMS and think they are cool tapping their cards. They are all helping move us to a cashless world. The banks are loving it.

yourdeadwright

Rural Ireland has been dying since forever,

It's been the by passes , the internet, the ban on drink driving,& so on i'm sure there are plenty of other things i have missed,

timmyntc

Cash is the great equalizer, it puts the power of trade in the hands of the people. Cuts out the middle man, I can just give cash to whoever for whatever and its all hunky dory.

Having everything done cashless means relying on a bank, payment processor, internet service provider, etc. They have the power over your money, can decide to stop letting you buy things. Look at what happened with the protests in Canada, banks freezing bank accounts of protestors at the governments request.

Soon we'll all have personal carbon budgets, and the banks will cut you off from spending if you exceed your carbon budget for the month. Or maybe they'll tax you more based on your spending.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058255564/is-the-decimation-of-rural-ireland-overhyped

So if you spotted a fifty dropped on the street you'd go 'ewww gross' and not pick it up?

BrianD3

I wonder would the OP have supported the government's "1GC" proposal during the pandemic - that was the proposal to engage EY to track credit card transactions to monitor compliance with social distancing and travel regulations. Described by Tony Holohan himself as a load of horsesh*te.

pgj2015

Didn't the Cypriot Government steal the contents of their citizens bank accounts at one stage during the last recession?

chubba1984

The issue is not one individual thing but the continued closure of services in rural locations which is ruining the community interaction. When I was young in our village, there were 5 pubs, 2 shops, a petrol statiom, creamery, post office, 3 x weekend masses, a 5 teacher primary school. In the next (larger) village, there were two full service banks, another larger post office, another creamery, multiple pubs, shops etc. Virtually all of these have closed and it has ripped the soul out of the community. There is no place to meet people or no services available. Pension day used to be huge for example and gave great business to the local area. The closure of the post offices and banks caused the shops to close because people were going to town to do everything.

The rural Ireland I grew up, and particularly my local village is dead. If it wasn't for the local GAA club now, there would be literally nothing happening at all in the area to keep the community going.

MakersMark

A lot of people don't understand the real maing of the word decimation.

It actually means to reduce by 10%....

Ubbquittious

I hate the notion of cashless even if I'm not doing any tax evasion. Everything tracked by the government/megacorps is very Orwellian indeed. Also with nearly every cashless system you are "paying to pay" in some way with a FinTech company reaping the rewards. It might be very low or even free for now but they are using your data and will start charging per transaction some point down the line

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371240#Comment_119371240

I wouldn't wipe my arse with a 50 Euro note.

That was why I stockpiled all the old 500 Euro notes a few years back. Luxury that the plebs wouldn't understand.

Galwayguy35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371320#Comment_119371320

No we are still here, but you stay exactly where you are because you're exactly the kind of townie we don't want to see coming to rural Ireland.

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371587#Comment_119371587

Why did they all close, did everyone just leave and move elsewhere so there was no more demand?

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371694#Comment_119371694

Well you're welcome to Dublin any time, although I know it's probably in your blood to absolutely despise the place.

Wibbs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371508#Comment_119371508

Oh I know a few germophobes and those on the spectrum that would have an aversion to picking it up. A couple of them I know got into EV's early on and there were reasons like being greener, cheaper to run, nerding out on the numbers etc but they also had minor flipouts every time they had to go to a garage pick up the "dirty" pump and smell the "dirty" fuel and the "dirty" exhaust. Needless to say the same bunch have been on board with the "cashless society" from early on.

Ray Palmer

It always strikes me as strange how rural Ireland complain about the demise of their towns and villages. The farmers stopped using as many people to do the work and became mechanised. Less people needed in rural location so the people left, less people less need for shops and anything else.

We went from 90% of our economy being agricultural to being 2% now. The work force of course dropped in line with this so there were literally no jobs to stay for.

People harking back to 30 years ago don't seem to realise they were watching their town dying then. Blaming Dublin based decisions for the death of the towns/villages ignores the part they played in their own demise.

Ireland is very reliant on cash and cheques so I understand the dismay by older people. I worked on an IT project for a very well known company who's parent company came over to install a new system. The bosses from the UK decided that there was no need for cheque acceptance as they did away with it in the UK and it was no big deal. They ignored people saying we needed cheque processing until it was pointed out 40% of payments came from cheques.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371594#Comment_119371594

The past meaning doesn't change what it means now. To decimate meant to kill 10% of your own army by the other 90% chosen at random by the use of taking a different coloured stone from a bag and obviously doesn't mean that now

Like "blood is thicker than water" which people believe to mean family first when it meant the exact opposite in that the shared blood of battle is a stronger bond than the water of the womb.

Geuze

The rural population has been rising, not falling.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371353#Comment_119371353

A person was in front of me at the drive thru.

First they tried to pay with their watch.

That didn't work

They the took off the watch to try and get it closer to the terminal.

That didn't work.

Then they dropped the watch under the car and had to get it.

Then they tried the phone

That didn't work

Then they tried the card

That didn't work

Then they just used cash.

The watch was three devices removed from the cash.

Three layers of complexity and things that could go wrong.

In Canada last week half the population lost network access for hours. Fat lot of good watches, phones and cards were to them.

McGrath5

Rural Ireland is responsible for its own "decimation" because of people's obsession with living in one off housing in the middle of nowhere and then wonder why their towns and villages become hollowed because nobody wants to live in them, but hey, its easier to blame it all on them Dublin folk.

Ray Palmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371863#Comment_119371863

Yeah never saw somebody drop money at a drive through and have to get out of their car and fumble around to pick up the coins. Never in a queue when somebody slows everyone down as they pick through their change to pay. It is just electronic payments that are the problem. Why you aren't annoyed the tilling system was not set up correctly rather than the person trying to use a service that is meant to be working.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371863#Comment_119371863

Well the counter example is the difference between waiting behind someone who taps their card and walks away compared to being behind some ould wan fishing in her purse for exact change.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371863#Comment_119371863

I'd rather have a back-up for that reason.

I've occasionally been in places where my card(s) didn't work on terminals, I'd be goosed otherwise.

The Continental Op

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119371882#Comment_119371882

And now we have the planners obsession with herding us all into houses in towns, because they don't like one off housing. Fcuking planners with their dublin university degrees.